An uninhabited island, a military base and a ‘desolate’ former whaling station. Trump’s tariffs include unlikely targets

By Brad Lendon, CNN

Seoul, South Korea (CNN) — The sweeping tariffs announced by US President Donald Trump on Wednesday target not only economic superpowers but also financial minnows. In fact, a White House list notes some territories with no economy, and no people, at all.

That is the exact case of the Heard Island and McDonald Islands, an Australian external territory in the southern Indian Ocean, which was hit with a 10% tariff.

The CIA World Factbook describes the uninhabited islands, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, as “80% ice-covered” and “bleak” in the case of Heard Island and the McDonald Islands as “small” and “rocky.”

Economic activity there essentially ended in 1877, when the trade in elephant seal oil was ended and the human population of sealers left the remote islands, which are located en route from Madagascar to Antarctica.

Another Australian territory targeted by tariffs is the Cocos Islands. With a population of 600 people, the territory sends 32% of its exports – ships – to the US, according to the CIA Factbook. They now face a 10% tariff.

On the opposite side of the planet, the small Norwegian island and former whaling station of Jan Mayen faces 10% tariffs. But no one lives there permanently (a few military personnel rotate in), and it has an economy of zero, according to the CIA Factbook, which calls it a “desolate, mountainous” island.

There are other places on Trump’s tariff list that also aren’t huge economic powers, to put it mildly.

Tokelau is a self-administered territory of New Zealand consisting of three atolls in the South Pacific Ocean with a population of about 1,600, according to the CIA Factbook. It has an economy of about $8 million and exports of around $100,000, the CIA says. Now, it too faces 10% tariffs.

One enclave hit particularly hard by Trump’s tariffs is Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a French territory of eight small islands near the Canadian province of Newfoundland. With a population of about 5,000 people, its “the sole remaining vestige of France’s once vast North American possessions,” the CIA Factbook says. Its exports – “processed crustaceans, shellfish,” according to the CIA – are now subject to a whopping US tariff of 50%, way more than France faces (20%) as part of the European Union.

The only place to face tariffs as high as Saint Pierre and Miquelon is Lesotho, a country of 2.2 million people surrounded by South Africa. It actually sends 20% of its $900 million in yearly exports – “diamonds, garments, wool, power equipment, bedding,” the CIA says –to the US. Those will now face 50% tariffs.

In some ways, the Trump administration is hitting places of high importance to Washington and US national security.

The British Indian Ocean Territory faces a 10% tariff. It’s populated only by about 3,000 British and American military personnel and contractors at the Diego Garcia airbase. The CIA Factbook lists its major export as fish, but it’s unclear who does the fishing (or who buys it).

The Marshall Islands, a group of 34 atolls and islands in the North Pacific, is home to 82,000 people and a key American military installation, the US Army Garrison Kwajalein, which helps in ballistic missile testing and tracking.

Washington is responsible for the defense of the Marshall Islands under a Compact of Free Association. The CIA says it has exports of about $130 million a year, though the US is not listed as a top destination. Those now face 10% tariffs if coming to the US.

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